When You Go To Mexico

I spent a lovely week on my first ever cruise a few weeks ago. It was really a fantastic trip, with so many new things to see and experiences. THAT is a good trip.

Cruises are interesting things. I was on a Carnival cruise, and I have to be perfectly honest with you...cruises are not my favorite mode of vacationing. Mostly, it was the food. Food is a big deal to me. I love good food. Cruise food, well, you can't blame them for not having fresh food because they pack up all the food and it sits there all week while you float in a boat for a week. The food will only be so good.

They sell you on the fact you can eat whatever you want, all that you want, but the fact is (at least for me) you won't want to eat much of it. It's much like a college cafeteria, but the food gets served to you on fancy china with sprigs of cilantro or parsley for garnish. Presentation is a great way to fool people in to thinking that the meat wasn't overcooked and the veggies weren't steamed for long enough.

In short, the cruise reminded me of how awesome of a cook I am. So both my sweetheart and I missed my cooking while I was away.

However, we got off in Cozumel, Mexico and I had THE best taco of my life. I could have eaten 20 of them. Cozumel is paradise. It's the most beautiful place in the world I have ever been. It was a majestic day on that island. We rented mopeds...while I feared for my life riding those beasties, it was a delight. I loved being out in the sun, zipping along the coast with the sweetest scent in the air.

There was a cheap little "resort" that I got to go try snorkeling in. It was INCREDIBLE! After I got past the I am going to suffocate to death and be eaten by fish fear, it was nice. The ocean around Cozumel is...get this...WARM! In California, I usually enjoy observing the ocean and maybe dipping my foot in. Cozumel, it's like jumping into a nice warm tub.

I'm moving to Mexico, guys. I wish.

Here we all are! I'm the shorty on the far right.

Next day was Mayan ruins. I saw the ruins in Chichen Itza! How cool is that! Now. I could write an entire blog post on all the neat little facts on Mayan culture and architecture, but I don't know how many of my dear readers are as big of dweebs as I am. So I'll simply share some photos with you and tell you that ancient Mayans were some dang smart people.

It was an incredible society with some weird stuff going on.(Okay, one weird fact and I'll be done: They had a sport they played and at the end of the game, one person was sacrificed. Guess who it was? Ready? Winning. Team. Captain. My sweetheart jokes that this might be why they were able to become such an advanced society, they simply killed off the jocks. Ha!) 


I guess I should also mention I saw New Orleans. Now. True to my nature, the highlight of New Orleans was this old coffee stand. I fell head over heals in love with Cafe Du Monde.

Beignets are simply the bomb. You eat them, and after you finish you have like a quarter pound of powdered sugar leftover. Deep fried. Done right.

Now did I try out some Southern food? Well...let's put it this way.

But in short, New Orleans is exactly how you would picture it. A little French influence. A lot of cheap plastic beads (New Orleans is the land of the cheap plastic bead necklaces). Jazz music is always playing somewhere, everywhere. You'll probably even see strange voodoo priestesses wandering around now and again. We're not in Utah anymore...

This is a VooDoo Priestess's crypt. Freaky, deaky, eh?

Yes, I took this trip without my sweetheart. That in and of itself was an experience. In the two years we've known each other, I think the longest we've gone without seeing each other since our first date was two days. I totally didn't even realize that until I thought about it the week before this trip.

My family has a saying, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but usually that fondness for someone else."  But I can tell you, that trip just made me appreciate what I have at home with my sweetheart all the more. After all, it's incredibly awkward cracking jokes in an elevator and no one laughs, and you still have three more floors to go. That's where my sweetheart comes in.

The charmer that he is, I came home to not one, not two but THREE bouquets of flowers and a lovely candle when I walked in around midnight at the conclusion of my journey. I feel so blessed to not only have the opportunity to have seen more of the world, but to have a wonderful home to come to with him. I am living the dream.

Take a Break!

Note: I wrote this blog a few weeks back and neglected to publish it...so here it is. Enjoy!

I missed a week of blogging, well, okay, I took time to write my blog but nothing is ready for the final upload. I have a project I'm working on for this blog. I will be doing an education series soon. It turned out to be a bigger project than I expected. At first I thought I was just going to tackle homeschooling and student loan debt and maybe health education, but then there was so much more to discuss! I want to wait until I've pulled all of my facts together and organized the topics appropriately (it is too easy to rant about education! I don't want a rant. Neither do you.)

What my Fall Break hike looked like.

Right now, I am enjoying a lovely Fall Break. Typically, my Fall and Spring Breaks generally consist of me saying I'm going to get ahead (or catch up...depending on circumstances). Instead I end up doing some work (which is nice) but I end up feeling disappointed in how much I am able to get done.

This semester is a little different. First way it is different is I do not do homework on Sunday's anymore. (Well, okay, there was one Sunday I did...fell ill on Saturday, so I made up for it Sunday.) One way this has been great is that come Monday, I am so excited to do homework. Perhaps it is part adrenaline of have a deadline move a day closer without having done anything...but in any case, I think having that day has been very good for me. In that same vein, I've decided to actually have Fall Break and not do homework.

It's amazing how telling taking a break is. I've learned I have a sick compulsion to study. All. the. time. I hid the textbooks. I put away my notes. My first moment of no homework, I instantly thought. Homework. That sounds good. Guys, I don't particularly enjoy some of these classes, and it's not that I don't have other talents and hobbies outside of spreadsheets and financial auditing. I have a lot of things I could be doing. Practice the ukulele or guitar. Writing, heavens! Writing!! I love writing! Yoga? Running? Hiking up the canyon that is just 15 minutes away from me? Reading. Hanging out at a bookstore. I have a lot I could be doing.

Breaks are so good for you. Take a break. It's fun to find out what your habits are and see how attached you are to what things. I don't think we really know what we "do" until we have nothing to do.